Editorial of The New York Sun | April 17, 2021
The prison sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai is likely just the beginning of the punishment the Chinese communists are going to mete out to the hero of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The 14-month stretch he’s just drawn is for participating in a peaceful demonstration by thousands. He still faces charges for fraud and violating the national security law. The 73-year-old family man may yet perish in prison.
(Go to the original like to see this excellent video)
We don’t know Mr. Lai well. The last time we conversed with him was in 2005 at a dinner honoring Milton and Rose Friedman and their idea of school choice. The several glancing encounters we’ve had with Mr. Lai over the years, though, leave us with an indelible impression of an extraordinary spirit — filled with an appreciation for the fact that economic prosperity depends on political liberty as much as economic liberty.................
This principle is the Achilles heel of communist China. Its hubris is that it will be able to realize its ambition for prosperity without political liberty. We’ve watched one regime after another pursue that illusion. None attained stability. The regime in Beijing is a classic. It has a veneer of stability. Its leaders, though, are afraid of Hong Kong and the free Chinese republic on Taiwan. They’re afraid of freedom and its tribunes...............
He told his colleagues that if small countries like South Korea and
Taiwan could succeed the way they did, there was no reason why a large
country like China couldn’t do the same. It was a major scoop, an early
signal that the communist mandarins were going to try to open up their
economy. Xinhua’s editor, though, missed the part about how South Korea
and Taiwan eschewed communism in favor of democracy...............To Read More...
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